Crown executives face pay vote down

Business Reporter

James Packer’s Crown might save itself further humiliation at next month’s shareholders meeting thanks to its senior executives taking another hit on their long term incentive (LTI) pay last year.

Crown faces the prospect of its remuneration report being voted down for the second year in a row - triggering a spill of the board - over concerns the lack of detail around the LTI plan hid soft performance hurdles.

Some of these fears were allayed yesterday by the release of Crown’s annual report which offered further details on the LTI hurdles, and more importantly, revealed that executives failed to meet them for a second year in a row.

Most of Crown’s senior executives still received higher remuneration for the year ending June 30 thanks to increased short term incentive payments.

A proxy advisor who wished to remain anonymous said Crown has worked hard to improve the disclosure issues which lead to recommendations to vote against the report last year.

‘‘They’ve given a lot more information on how the scheme actually works,’’ said the the proxy advisor which is yet to make a formal recommendation on how to vote this year.

If more than 25 per cent of eligible Crown shareholders vote against the remuneration report for a second year in a row Crown faces a spill of its board within 90 days as the company detailed in its annual general meeting notice yesterday.

Mr Packer complained last year of the ‘‘farcical’’ situation which prevents him from voting his 50 per cent stake in Crown on the remuneration report - due to his position on the board - despite drawing no pay from the company.

He can vote on board appointments though, and he said that if the report is voted down this year he will use his stake to immediately re-instate the entire board.

In a statement to the ASX late last night Genting said it sold its 39.6 million shares at $3.00 each, representing a small loss on the investment.

There has yet to be any word on where the shares have ended up with Genting’s listed Hong Kong operation which said last week that it still intends to lift its 5.2 per cent stake in Echo above the current 10 per cent cap if the regulators give it permission.